Baby Mine
by OKBooey31
Summary: As miserable Katherine had always been that one day, every year, Elijah couldn't help but smile when he thought about where it got them.
1. One Day

**Disclaimer 1.0: I don't own TVD**

It happened once a year.

Katherine would wake up and roll away from Elijah. She would cling to her side of the bed all day long. Her brown eyes looked lifeless without the mischievous glint they normally held. Her entire appearance looked dull as she hid under the satin sheets and down comforter of their king-sized bed. All in all, Katherine Pierce looked depressed but it only lasted a day; the next morning, she would be up, opening the drapes to let the morning sunlight stream through the windows with her usual bravado and no trace of the previous day's sulking on her features.

At first, Elijah thought nothing of it. He gave her space on the day Katherine decided she needed to sulk. But it never stopped and Elijah began to pick up on a pattern.

It happened once a year, on the same day every year.

And even after Elijah noticed this, it was years before he had an inkling of why Katherine reserved this particular day to sulk. At first he thought it was the day that his brother had murdered her family for her transgressions. So, when he felt Katherine roll away from him on the morning of the designated day, Elijah would move closer and hold her to him for a time before kissing her hair and leaving her to mourn in peace while he spent the day completely helpless.

Then Elijah realized that his math had been off and found the day was, in fact, not even remotely close to the day Niklaus had massacred Katherine's parents and siblings. He became baffled once more and when the day rolled around the next time, Elijah stayed in bed with the shell of the woman he loved despite her protests of wanting to be alone.

After a day full of heavy silence and giving Katherine as much space as the king-sized bed would allow, Elijah pulled her close like he had earlier in the morning. He felt her hands grasp his and squeeze them tightly as her shoulders began to quiver. Elijah gently rolled her in his arms so she was facing him and saw tears leaking from her dull, chocolate brown eyes.

"Katerina," he murmured, his lips moving against her forehead as his fingers ran through her silky curls. "Tell me what troubles you, my love." Katherine only shook her head in response, moving to hide her silent tears in his thin t-shirt. "I beg you, Katerina. I hate seeing you so miserable. Tell me what makes this day so special," he pleaded.

Their bedroom was silent for a few moments and Elijah waited with bated breath, hoping that she would answer him and he would be able to help ease her pain with the knowledge her confession would bring. He continued to stroke her hair comfortingly while he patiently waited.

"Today was the day I had my daughter," Katherine whispered suddenly. "My father took her away because her birth was a disgrace to my family. I never even got to hold her," Katherine sniffled, still hiding her face in Elijah's chest. "I never got the chance to be a mother."

* * *

Their search began the next morning. Elijah woke early and set up his laptop at the kitchen table and began reading through the websites of various adoption agencies.

It was around ten thirty when Katherine strode into the kitchen, already dressed for the day. "And what are you up to today?" she asked over her shoulder as she busied herself at the coffee maker.

"Good morning to you, too, Kat."

"Good morning. Now are you going to tell me what you're so focused on? You're not even out of your pajamas, Eli," she said, tutting fondly at Elijah's dressed down state as she sat across from him at the table.

"Nothing much, my dear. What you told me last night has me thinking."

"Elijah," Katherine said exasperatedly, her hand tightening on the mug in front of her.

"Katherine."

The brunette gulped and looked down at the liquid in her mug. Elijah rarely called her by that name and when he did, she knew that whatever he was saying was not up for discussion. Elijah's hand wrapped around hers and she looked up to meet his soft eyes shyly.

The Original had turned the computer screen around for her to see. "How do you feel about Russia?" he asked gently.

Katherine smiled brightly in response.

* * *

After months of completing paper work, having agents conduct home studies, and receiving ridicule from Klaus and Kol while Caroline and Rebekah offered their support, Elijah and Katherine submitted their official Russian dossier and became registered adoptive applicants.

None of that compared to the waiting, though. Of course, time was not an issue but after months of preparations, sitting around idly and waiting for something to happen made the Original and the doppelganger anxious. Katherine kept herself busy and began to prep the room they had set aside to be their new addition's room. Elijah helped where he could but quickly realized that Katherine wasn't very interested in his opinion and instead, she called Caroline and Rebekah.

The two blondes arrived with Klaus two days later and the three set to work in a rare show of close friendship to create a very gender neutral bedroom, leaving Klaus and Elijah to their own devices.

"I still don't understand, brother. If you so desired, you could have any child you wished with a little _persuasion _and, yet, you choose to leave things up to chance," Klaus scoffed as they sat in the library, nursing glasses of scotch.

Elijah studied his brother for a moment. He had come a long way from the cold hearted and bloodthirsty man he had once been, due in large part to Caroline's companionship. The eldest Mikaelson never ceased to be astounded by the amount of light the young vampire radiated. It was always refreshing, even more so when Elijah saw the effect it had on his brother. He knew that part of Klaus would always remain tainted, troubled, and villainous but Elijah was constantly grateful to Caroline's presence in his brother's life. Yes, Klaus had a _long_ ways to go in terms of reforming his cold-hearted ways but the ever so slight adjustments in the man's character were comforting and Elijah could rest much easier at night knowing that he didn't have to worry over Klaus' well being as much.

"Yes, Katerina and I have the power to do that but neither of us want it that way. We want it to be authentic and legitimate. It's not something I can explain to you, Niklaus. Perhaps you'll come to understand it on your own someday."

Klaus just pursed his lips. "Perhaps…Caroline was meant to be a mother and if that's something she wants then you know I won't deny her that. For now, however, I'm content to be the estranged uncle. You were always better with children, anyhow."

Elijah laughed and raised his glass to Klaus.

Maybe his brother understood more than he let on.

* * *

Twenty-seven months later, Katherine and Elijah found themselves meeting with the director of an orphanage in Volgograd. They spent two days in his office being interviewed and talking over logistics. On midafternoon of the third day, they found themselves in a waiting room, sitting at a small table. Katherine kept wringing her hands nervously as Elijah stared at the clock, waiting anxiously to meet the two children they had been offered two months ago.

"_I have good news, Mr. Mikaelson! If you're wife is nearby you may want to put the phone on speaker," Mrs. Cartwright, their American adoption agent, said cheerily._

_Elijah rolled his eyes, knowing full well that Katherine could hear everything being said even though she was in the next room. He heard the clicking of her heels on the wooden floor as she entered the library and sat on the arm of his chair. Elijah smiled up at her and put the phone on speaker anyways._

"_Hello, Miranda," Katherine said kindly._

"_Hello, Katherine! It's wonderful to speak to you again. As I was telling Elijah, I have some very, _very _good news!_ _We've gotten confirmation from the Russian agency about a little girl in Volgograd who matches your file!"_

_The couple exchanged broad smiles and Katherine leaned forward, tucking some of her curls behind her ear. "Tell us more about her!"_

"_Unfortunately, I don't have much information other than she's eighteen months and her name is Anastasiya. We're trying to get a picture in but, nonetheless, the orphanage has looked over your dossier and files and agreed about the match. They want you to come meet with them as soon as you can!"_

There was a knock on the door before it opened to reveal the orphanage director and a staff member. In the staff member's arms was a little girl who had chestnut colored hair that hung in ringlets. She rubbed her olive colored eyes sleepily and peered at Elijah and Katherine before turning her face into the girl's neck.

"This is Anastasiya," the director said with a smile as the little girl peered at them again from behind a curtain of honey colored hair.

* * *

Two short court hearings- one in Russia and one in the States- and five months later, Elijah and Katherine pulled back into the driveway of their quiet, lakeside home in Sodus Point the afternoon after the second hearing and saw Klaus' black SUV sitting in the driveway.

"Seriously?" Katherine scoffed. "We just got back. Can't they give us a moment to kick our shoes off?"

Elijah chuckled as he pulled the key out of the ignition. "Niklaus may be the most powerful man on the planet but do you really think he could have kept Caroline occupied in Vienna for over a month, no matter how much she loves it there? I think we're extraordinarily lucky to have gotten the amount of time we did, Katerina."

"Psychotic. Both of them," Katherine said with an eye roll and a flip of her thick, brunette curls before turning in her seat to look at their daughter, Elijah doing the same.

The two vampires smiled as they watched Anastasiya play with her feet and babble happily. Katherine leaned her forehead against Elijah's shoulder and he kissed her temple.

"We're officially a family now," Katherine said, her smile growing.

"Mmmmaa. Mmmaaaaa!" she said, reaching towards the floor of the car before looking up at her parents with a creased brow. "Mmma!"

"Uh, oh!" Elijah and Katherine exclaimed at the same time.

"We can't have him disappearing on us, can we, Ana?" Elijah said, making a face at Ana while reaching over to pick up the purple elephant-shaped blanket that had _Anastasiya Renee_ stitched into the soft fabric out of the floor and holding it back out to his daughter, only to pull it back when she reached for it and swish the fabric in her face gently, eliciting a giggle from the brown-haired, green-eyed toddler.

"Shall we?" he asked after he finally gave the lovie back to a giggling Ana, watching as she brought the lovie to her mouth.

"I guess. Ready to go meet your crazy aunt and uncle, Ana?" Katherine asked when she opened the back door and unbuckled Ana from her car seat. The little girl squealed excitedly when she saw their home and pointed towards it, gripping her lovie tightly in her little hand.

Elijah smiled as he watched Katherine talk to her daughter, _their _daughter, in her baby voice as they walked, Ana on her hip, towards the front door.

Yes, they had missed her first steps, her first tooth, and her first babblings. But those were only a couple milestones when there were plenty more to come and many memories to make as a family. For a man and woman who had once thought they would never have the chance to be parents, Elijah and Katherine couldn't be more excited about the coming years.

**_Disclaimer 2.0: _I didn't go into too much detail about the adoption process because I didn't want to get anything obscenely wrong. I did read a few sources about international adoption, specifically for Russia, and I apologize if I got anything wrong:)**

**A/N: just a little somethin'-somethin' filled with Kalijah goodness while I try to find my muse for my other stuff...writing funks suck, guys. like seriously...this took me days. I think I told PixieKindOfCrazy about it like five days ago and that was when I had, like, maybe a paragraph. here's to hoping everything will caaallllmmmm doooowwwnnnn once I get through with this semester in a couple weeks!**

**Anyways, thanks for reading! If you have a second, let me know what you think and if you'd like to see some more of Elijah, Katherine, and little Ana in the future (I hope how I wrote Katherine and Elijah did them justice) Thanks again, guys. Catch ya on the flip side:)  
**


	2. Cookin!

**Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire Diaries.**

"I cookin', Daddy! I cookin'!" Ana squealed, a large smile on her round face, her green eyes alight with mirth.

Unfortunately, Elijah couldn't share the same joy his daughter felt because of the racquet. The two and a half year old had an assortment of plastic food items and dishes piled in the sink of her play kitchen and was stirring them around frantically with her hands, laughing, squealing, and stomping her little feet the whole time.

"That's lovely, Ana," he said as he reread the same sentence from his book for what had to be the twentieth time, at _least_.

Finally, the ruckus stopped. Not completely of course as Ana babbled to herself and slammed food down onto a plate. There was a little pitter-patter of feet and then a tug on his pants leg. With a smile and an exasperated sigh, Elijah and shut his book and placed it on the side table before turning his attention to his rowdy daughter.

"Here, Daddy! Din time!"

"Is this your way of telling me you're hungry, Ana?"

"Nnn-oh!" she said, scrunching her nose up and giggling. "Daddy silwy."

Taking the purple plate out of her little, outstretched hands, he pulled her up into his lap. "Are you sure?" he prompted, ticking her sides and relishing Ana's high-pitched giggles.

"No! 'Top, daddy, 'top! I go cook," she whined, squirming to get out of his embrace while her little arms flailed in the direction of her beloved play kitchen and Elijah groaned. As adorable as Ana was and as much as she enjoyed pretending to cook, the riot that came from it got on Elijah's nerve. He much preferred quieter activities, but thanks to his loud family (specifically his wife, Rebekah, Kol, Caroline and Niklaus…_not_ that Elijah was pointing fingers. Where would the decorum be in that?) the only time Ana seemed to be silent was when she was asleep.

And that was a rare occurrence as well seeing as the little girl had quickly picked up her mother _and_ uncle's stubborn streak and tended to fight bedtime harder than Klaus had when Caroline kicked Sneakers out of their bedroom. And _that _was saying something.

"Guess what?" he said with raised eyebrows, desperate to distract Ana.

"Wha?" she said, sticking her fingers in her mouth.

"You know who comes home tonight?"

"Mama!"

"Mhmm," he said, pressing his lips to the crown of her head.

"Unc Nik come, too?" she asked, nodding vigorously at the thought of both her mother and favorite uncle.

"No, princess. Uncle Nik is waiting at his home for Auntie Caroline."

"Otay," her brow creased in disappointment but only for a moment. "Doowwnn. I go cook fo' Mama."

Bingo.

"How about you and I go to the store and get some things and we cook a welcome home dinner for mama?"

Ana nodded excitedly and started squirming in Elijah's arms again. "Go! Le's go!"

"We need to get your shoes first, silly!"

"Oh yeah. I go get 'em. I get booties!"

"That's a great idea," he said with a smile and a nod, setting her down on the floor and watching her run off to get her shoes as fast as her legs could carry her.

"Daddy?!"

"Yes, princess?"

"We get chips? Pwease!"

* * *

Three hours later, eight bags of pasta, four different kinds of cheese and five different sauces, an assortment of fruits and vegetables, a bouquet of flowers, and three bags of chips later, Elijah found himself standing over the sink, peeling vegetables with his rambunctious little girl who had insisted Elijah wear an apron (like he would risk getting his suit dirty anyways) whilst she donned her chef's costume.

Unfortunately, Ana didn't seem as interested in real cooking rather than sampling food and getting in Elijah's way.

"Watch your fingers, Ana. This knife is sharp."

"Ana, turn the water off."

"Hold on, Ana, I need to finish peeling this tomato before you give me another."

"Put the grater down."

"No, don't put it in the pot if you've taken a bite out of it, princess."

Okay, maybe this hadn't been one of Elijah finer ideas but at least she wasn't set on making a racquet and throwing her toys all over the house.

"Good job, Ana. I think that's enough," Elijah said with raised eyebrows as he watched her greasy fingers smear the butter throughout the frying pan.

"No!" she exclaimed, looking up at him and narrowing her bright, green eyes with a pout that reminded him so much of Katherine before she went back to pushing the butter around and around the pan, her wispy light ash-brown ringlets sticking to her rosy cheeks. With an amused shake of his head, Elijah reached for his wine glass and took a sip.

And then saw the clock.

"Ana if we actually want to surprise mommy with dinner, we need to cook it," he said, prying the disk out from under her hands and setting it on the counter. "Pour the pasta in here while I turn the stove on, princess."

"Oooh-tay! We cookin', dad- uh oh…."

Elijah suppressed a groan as noodles fell to the tiled floor with a clatter. He turned around to see Ana turned in the chair she was standing in, staring down at the mess. Her little mouth was hanging open and her eyebrows had disappeared under her unruly curls. She had such shock in her eyes that Elijah could only laugh at her expression.

"Uh-oh," Ana said, looking up at Elijah with wide eyes.

"Well, at least we came home with more than one bag of pasta," he chuckled, stepping away from the stove and picking up another bag of bowtie pasta and opening it. "How about daddy helps you this time?"

They had finally set the pasta boiling on the stove when Elijah heard the door open. Dinner barely on the stove and a kitchen that looked as if an atomic bomb had gone off in it wasn't exactly what he had in mind when he and Ana had decided to surprise Katherine but seeing his little girl smile so brightly was worth it.

"Where's mommy's princess?" Katherine called from the foyer, her high-heeled boots clicking against the polished hardwood. She stopped abruptly when she rounded the corner into the kitchen. "Oh my!"

"Aprise! We cookin', mama! Me an' daddy cookin!" Ana screamed, throwing her butter covered hands in the air, a wooden spoon clutched in her grip and chef's hat askew on her head.

No, definitely not what Elijah had in mind, but it was more than worth it.

**A/N: yuh know...just some more Kalijah and Ana goodness. inspired by this vid: watch?v=ToTVFEHZhX4 (no, I don't watch Supernatural lol...this popped up on my tumblr dash the other day:P)**

**thanks for reading! if you have a minute, please review...I'd really appreciate it! I like writing these lil Kalijah parenthood drabbles so if you have a suggestion, don't hesitate to let me know:)**


	3. Earrings

**Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire Diaries**

"Let's go, mommy's ready!" Katherine called, taking in her appearance in the mirror and fluffing her curls one more time.

"Otay!"

She walked out of the master bathroom to see her and Elijah's bed covers creased, pillows on the floor, and the unruly ash brown curls of her hyperactive three-year-old jumping on the bed smack dab in the middle of it all. "Ana!"

"Hehe," she giggled with a devilish smile at Katherine's disapproving gaze "I weady mama!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands out to the side. Katherine groaned and pulled Ana off the bed and placed her onto the floor.

"Now mommy's not ready because she has to remake the bed so daddy doesn't have a stroke. Pick the pillows up for me, please," Katherine said, moving quickly to straighten everything out. She held her hand out for the pillows only to find that they were still on the ground and Ana had disappeared into the walk in closet. "Anastasiya Mikealson!" she snapped. "Go pick the pillows up."

"No."

"Now, Ana."

"No! I get julwy. I get mama's earwings. You not weady! Need you earwings."

"I'll get my earrings and you go clean the pillows up," she sighed in exasperation, removing Ana from where she was climbing up to the shelf holding Katherine's jewelry. "Hurry, we're leaving when I get to five otherwise your aunts will have my head because we won't have anything we need when they get here later."

"'tay!"

"1…," Katherine began counting, quickly putting her earrings on. "2... 3.. 4. 5! Here I come!" she walked out of the room to see the pillows thrown carelessly across the bed and a blur of dark curls crashed into her knees. "Close enough," she said bending over to pick Ana up.

"I weady!"

"Good let's go, stinker."

"Wait! You not weady! Earwings!"

"I put them in, Ana. See?" Katherine said, internally groaning.

"Not dose! Need diffwent ones!"

"Yes these. I like these ones."

"No! Not dese ones. Not dese ones!" Ana wailed and Katherine groaned.

After giving into Ana's choice of earrings (that didn't match) thirty minutes after, they were headed out the door.

* * *

"Ana, come and say hello to Auntie Rebekah and Stefan, princess," Elijah said walking into the playroom.

"We colorin'!" she said, looking up briefly from her coloring book and the numerous crayons littering the floor surrounding her and Klaus. "Unc Nik color wif me."

Elijah chuckled and squatted down beside his daughter and brother where they were laid out on the floor, Klaus fiddling with more crayons than actually coloring- not that there was enough room to fit much of his own work in between Ana's domineering personality and sporadic scribbles. "That's very pretty. You and Uncle Nik can come finish that after dinner."

"Yup! Let's go downstairs, sweetheart," Klaus said, sitting up a little too eagerly as Elijah peered at his daughter who was exercising her newfound talent of selective hearing. There was something off about Ana and if Klaus' smirk was anything to go by, Elijah knew he wasn't going to be thrilled about it once he figured it out.

"Katerina!" he yelled as he spotted it when she turned her head and the light hit her little ears just right, jumping up from the floor.

"What?" Katherine asked as he strode into the kitchen, Klaus and Ana not far behind with her babbling on and on about her 'new ears' and Klaus' pointer finger grasped in her little hand.

Elijah just pointed at the three-year-old.

"What about her?"

"She's three! Why are her ears pierced?!"

"If you had to wear earrings that don't match everywhere you went, you'd have gotten her ears pierced to, Elijah."

**A/N: ****If you have a request let me know either through a review, PM, or over on tumblr! in all the craziness/hate about Klaroline and the spinoff, I enjoy escaping into the nice and quiet Kalijah world lol. I made a Kalijah blog if any of you are on tumblr and interested in following: catchingkalijah _dot_ tumblr _dot_ com. you can still find me at danceswithhybrids, too:)**

**thanks for reading:)**


	4. Babysitting

**Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire Diaries.**

**Prompt: Klaroline babysitting/date night for Kalijah suggested by _LisaLevine_ and _Santana Sweet Devil. _Hope you guys like and don't mind that I sorta combined them:)**

**Special shout out to Hannie597. I hope you like it! everyone could use some fluff right now, no matter who you ship cause that ep on Thursday...ouch.**

* * *

Klaus did _a lot_ for his brother. Like that one vacation- one of the first 'family plus ones' vacations they had ever taken (yup, you guessed it. It had been a _complete _dysfunctional disaster of epic proportions)- when Elijah had forgotten (don't even ask him how that had happened) to pick up Katherine at the airport and by the time he realized it, a beyond pissed off brunette doppelganger was already pounding on the door of their villa in Mallorca. And being the loving, caring, and compassionate brother he was, he let his big brother make his escape and faced Katherine's wrath all by himself much to Kol, Caroline, Stefan, and Rebekah's amusement.

Klaus thought he had been lucky to live to tell the tale.

It was funny how things hadn't changed much as he stood, leaning against the kitchen counter, listening to Katherine blab on and on and on about Ana's things and he dearly hoped Caroline was paying attention because all he could do was glare at his brother's apologetic gaze and the toddler wailing in his arms. Klaus had done a lot for his brother but this was one thing he had _never_, cross his heart and hope to die, thought he would be doing. Ever. But here he was, standing in his kitchen watching his bouncing blonde absorb (or so he hoped) all of Katherine's lengthy instructions.

"Aww, don't cry, Ana," she said, turning to the snotty nosed two-year-old clinging to Elijah's sport coat like her life depended on it. "Auntie Caroline and Uncle Klaus will take very good care of you! At least they better otherwise I'll have something very vital of your Unc-"

"Alright, Kat, dear," Elijah said, cutting Katherine off and shooting Klaus another apologetic look at the threat to his…well, you know. "We should go otherwise we'll be late."

"Okay! Here juice cup is in here, her p-a-c-i, her lovey…um pajamas."

"Alright, we got it!" Caroline exclaimed with a bright smile. "She'll be absolutely fine," she said, crossing over to Elijah and holding her hands out for Ana. "We'll have a lot of fun- you, me and Uncle Nik. Right, Ana?"

"No!" Ana wailed, tossing her head back.

"Always a good start," Klaus mumbled under his breath.

"I'm serious, Mikaelson. You make my daughter miserable and I swear to all that's holy I will castrate you-"

"Say bye-bye to mama, Ana," Elijah said, pulling Katherine's attention away from Klaus.

Katherine turned for a moment and kissed her daughter's forehead. "Mama loves you, princess We'll be back in a couple days! Be a good girl!" She turned back to Klaus, "-In your sleep."

His day couldn't get any better when a now quiet Ana was securely in Caroline's arms and his brother and sister-in-law, whom he loved _dearly_ (ha. ha. ha.)we're out the door. It was quiet for a few minutes as they all regained their breath and sanity from Katherine's Inquisition. Klaus watched Caroline bustle about the kitchen with the kid in her arms and let the smile grow across his face. Maybe babysitting wouldn't be too hard.

At least that's what he thought until Sneakers came bounding into the kitchen barking. He cringed as Ana began wailing all over again.

Babysitting: 1. Klaus: 0.

Thirty minutes later, Ana was still crying and Klaus felt like his head was going to explode. "Caroline." She didn't answer. "Caroline!" Nothing. "CAROLINE!"

"What?!" she snapped, walking into the den with Ana on her hip, a purple pacifier stuck in her mouth and wiping her puffy red eyes with her lovey.

"Make her stop."

"It's not that easy! It's her first night away from her parents, she's scared."

"Well…can't you compel her or- or something?"

"Have you lost your mind! _She's. A. Baby_!"

"She's loud."

"It's not my fault your freaking dog scared her!"

"Oh, so he's _my_ dog now? Do I need to remind you about the fit you threw over keeping him? Or is that suddenly _my_ fault, too?"

"Klaus."

"_What_?" Caroline didn't say anything, only looked pointedly from him to the two-year-old. Her green eyes were locked on him as she sniffled and wiped her eyes. "It's about bloody time. I'm surprised her lungs are still intact because _damn_. I thought you could be loud."

Caroline glared at him. "I think she likes the sound of your voice," she whispered, not wanting to disturb the peace.

"And what does that mean?"

"Well, it means," Caroline said, a sly smile crossing her face as she took dangerously measured steps toward him. Klaus knew that look and that walk all to well and he groaned dramatically because she was about to ask him to do something he didn't want to do, "that you're about to make your lazy self useful."

And before Klaus could protest, she had deposited the kid in his arms, snot and all. Klaus' brows shot into his hairline as he regarded his sniffling niece. She stared back at him with wide eyes. Caroline snickered at them and turned on her heel to go back into the kitchen, blonde curls flying over her shoulder. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait! What the bloody hell am I supposed to do?! Caroline!"

"Figure it out. I have to make dinner," she said, looking at him over her shoulder with a triumphant smirk and Klaus cursed under his breath as he watched her go.

"Your aunt's a bloody lunatic, you know that?" he asked the kid.

"I heard that!"

"Your mother's psychotic, as well. But you know that. I bet that's why you threw such a fit earlier, hmm?"

"Nik!"

"What?! It's true."

As long as Klaus didn't leave Ana's side, she remained quiet for the rest of the night. He did find that out the hard way, though, when he had tried to set her on the floor so he could feed Sneakers. Caroline had watched on in amusement as Klaus tried to multitask with both an impatient dog jumping around for his dinner and a crying two-year-old under his feet reaching up at him.

"Enjoying yourself?" he snapped at Caroline, turning to look at her over his shoulder.

"You look ridiculous," she said, bursting into laughter and he growled.

Ana had to sit on his lap while they ate dinner, much to Klaus' dismay. It wasn't all that bad, he decided. Heck, he even got some giggles out of her while they sat in the floor of the living room playing with her toys Katherine had brought over.

Babysitting: 2. Klaus: 2.

The big test came when it was bedtime. Thankfully, Caroline took pity on him and got her ready, Ana clinging tightly to Klaus' finger the whole time but babbling happily, nonetheless.

"How are we going to do this?" Klaus asked, looking up at Caroline from where he was on the floor, making faces down at his niece.

Caroline shrugged and looked back at him. "Should be easy...I think she's tired. She should be after all that crying, earlier."

"Easier for you to say. She hasn't been clinging to you all night."

"Oh, lighten up, you grump," she said, scratching Sneaker's ears as the dog studied the two-year-old on the floor.

"Alright, Ana. Let's go to sleep," he said, picking up her up.

"She can walk, you know," Caroline said with a smile from the floor, watching Klaus carry the two-year-old away. Her smile grew when Sneakers jumped up to follow Klaus up the stairs. "I think someone's jealous of his daddy," she called after him.

"I'm not the dog's father, Caroline. How many times have we been over this?"

"Either that or he's trying to tell us something..."

Klaus groaned but otherwise ignored her because no, no, no, no, no. Did he mention no? Babysitting was one thing and he was quite content with their functionally dysfunctional life the way it was right now, thank you very much.

But that didn't stop him from thinking about maybe one day, you know, in like a hundred or so years (at least) as Ana curled up on the bed in between him and Sneakers, rubbing her eyes and yawning. Caroline joined them soon enough and groaned at the sight of the dog in her spot on the bed.

"Do you mind? I'm _trying _to babysit, Caroline," he hissed, cringing as Ana's eyes popped open for a split second before they rolled back into her head.

Caroline rolled her eyes and, no more than ten minutes later, climbed into bed with a snoozing dog, two-year-old, and hybrid. Thinking twice about it, she quietly hopped back out of bed and snapped a picture on her phone to send to Elijah and Katherine.

"Delete it," Klaus said, keeping his eyes closed. He could not figure for the life of him _why _she insisted on taking pictures of him doing 'cute' things. His reputation could not allow for such atrocities, thank you very much. He could _hear_ Caroline's eyes roll as she climbed back into bed and he knew it was too late.

"You know, you're good at this…," she whispered, propping herself up on her elbow to peer at him.

"_No_, Caroline."

She dropped onto her pillow with an indignant huff. Klaus pursed his lips in thought. Maybe one day...

In a hundred years, _at least_. Babysitting for his brother and his psychotic sister-in-law was _more_ than enough. He couldn't stop smirking, though.

Babysitting: 2. Klaus: 3.

Take that, Katerina.

**A/N: ****thanks for reading! please review if you have a second or have a suggestion, it's much appreciated:)**

**follow on tumblr if ya want: catchingkalijah **dot **tumblr** dot **com :D**


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